Rocks Are Hard Yo…

Yesterday. Was a slog. Apparently 12-year-olds don’t like rocks as much as I do. Plus I had to act out a wind turbine, which was hard because (a) I forgot the sound effects (whoOSH) and (b) my arms won’t turn like that, so I just look like a crazy woman. What’s new, right? I made the SECA laugh anyway. The kids think I’m nuts though, and rocks are hard yo. Ha Ha. They usually ARE hard. I want that shirt now. Rocks are hard. OK, this is how you know we’re close to break…the stupidest shit makes a teacher laugh until she cries. Rocks are hard.

OK. That said, I had to push and shove and yank them through the understanding of mining and the rock cycle yesterday…today we finish with the copper mine and then they write the CER. QUIETLY. For reals. Sigh. I can’t help anyone when I have children losing their minds because I asked them to write 7 whole sentences. In two days, it’ll be fine. FINE, I SAID.

I went to pilates right after work. That was pretty smart. The class was half empty (it wasn’t supposed to be) and it was good. Relaxing in a shaky-muscle kinda way. When I made it home, someone else was cooking for once (yay!) and I finished grading one assignment and input it and another one, and then made a list of all the things that needed grading over break unless I get some of them done in the next two days and I lost my mind. Eyes rolling back in head. Seriously behind. Always. Never caught up. My eyelid is not twitching though…yet…so that’s a good sign. Although my neck is close to frozen in place. Massage! To the rescue!

The kittens are very energetic…

And in everything, EVERYTHING. They tried to climb one of the quilts on the wall yesterday, so we moved some stuff to stop that. This is my sewing bag. Or a cat carryon. Hard to say.

They completely shredded this toy after pulling it out of a box and dragging it around…

I wish I could get a good photo of them leaping through the air, but they are too fast…

Sometimes they even slow down and let you pet them…

They are sweet. Although the house is currently a lot of animals trying to eat poop or attack things.

Kitten is still avoiding it all…by living in my office…

Calli wants to play too…and eat poop…

Simba is in the eat poop category…but also how much cat food can he steal.

I did stitch down for about an hour. I don’t have much stamina at the moment.

My brain is all over the map, stressed out, trying to get everything done and out of my head onto paper.

I’m more than halfway around, two full figures done and started on the third. It won’t take long to finish it. I just need the mental space (as always) and the energy. At some point, I’m going to need to sit down with my art deadlines and realistically decide about the next one. I’m not there yet. Certainly with two days of school before break, that is NOT the time to reevaluate anything (except my job choice of course).

Which means I need to go to work. It’s Decade Day. I’m 90s grunge, even though I always dress this way and I have to wear my school shirt because it’s also the staff picture day. And during the 90s, I was giving birth to my children, so 90s grunge was all about breastfeeding and diapers. Well, the last half of it anyway. Whatever. Happy holidays y’all! Especially sending good thoughts to teachers everywhere. Don’t kill them! It’s not worth the jail time. Joke. Mostly.

It’s My Favorite Day of the School Year…

It is my favorite day of the entire school year. No, not the last day. I hate the last day. It’s stressful and annoying and I have my homeroom kids for 3 hours straight which is just nuts. Not fun. It’s not the day before Winter Break…then they act like they’re on crack and they can do totally stupid shit because three weeks is forever for them and they don’t think they’ll EVER get in trouble for acting out, plus sugar, plus Christmas makes them LOSE THEIR MINDS, and there’s an assembly, which just hurts my head even more, so no, not this Friday. Today is my favorite day because it’s…pajama day. You heard me. I get to wear pajamas to school. It’s like heaven on Earth. Oh yeah. I’m so happy.

Which is good, because I’m teaching about mining and spending my lunch giving quizzes, so none of that is fun at all. Well, mining isn’t bad. It’s just getting them to understand what the rock cycle has to do with it. It might be really obvious to YOU. Not so to a 12-year-old.

Anyway, I can survive three more days of school. I’m up early for yet another random meeting. Yesterday, during tutoring, I sat with an exhausting table. Sometimes I walk around and help random kids, but yesterday there was a group of kids who are mostly mine who needed science help. Literally one I had to say…now write the next sentence about farts. Seriously. Don’t even ask. Please. The rest of the time was like having WWII fighter pilots bombing you from above and trying to avoid the bombs, plus answer all the questions, and keep the pilots on task, because they wanted to go over THERE or over THERE and not do their job. EXHAUSTING. I really appreciate the other teacher who stayed late because all the other teachers ditched yesterday and I was gonna be all alone.

I came home and wrapped some gifts and talked to some people in person and on the phone and made dinner yet again (not sure how I ended up with double duty, and I’m pretty sure someone was supposed to help last night and didn’t, but when I looked over to ask for help, he had two baby kittens snoring on him)…spaced out a little, watched some TV, read 6 pages of Trump’s crazy-ass letter to Pelosi (how did he write that much? That’s a lot of words, albeit crazy words), and came in here and set up to do stitchdown…

This isn’t going to take very long. It’s very meditative…

Ah, spacecat. I only did an hour’s worth. More tonight I think…

I should be grading shit, but I couldn’t deal with it after being in tutoring. I was tired of it. I’ll do some today. I swear. There’s some easy stuff I could (should) get out of the way. I don’t want to be grading all break. Although there’s a few significant assignments this week. Ugh.

It’s really hard to get good pictures of these beasts sometimes. They’re constantly racing around…they wanted out this morning after the man left, but I knew I was leaving too, so I told them no…

They’re not really big enough yet to be let all over the house unsupervised, especially with my sweet girl (um. Well. She’s not so sweet.) in the house.

I had a moment last night…it’s the second time…where I really wanted to go to Craft Napa up in…well…Napa. It’s mostly art quilt stuff and it just sounds fun to take a class and mess around, but it takes forever to get there and I am back at school and I’m taking a class the weekend before in Palm Springs, which is a ways away, but nowhere near as far as Napa, so UGH. I had to persuade myself out of it again. Plus it would be really expensive to get there and stay there and take classes, so no, no, no, you can’t. Plus you have another quilt to finish before the end of January and it doesn’t even exist on paper, so I don’t know how the hell you think that is going to happen if you are traipsing all over California.

OK, I also need to wrap presents and pack quilts for shows tonight, so I should do some of that. I bought the boxes yesterday to get ready for it. And I have pilates right after school…I’ve never done an early class like this, right after school…I’ll need to change at school and go over there. I’m hoping it’s really relaxing and helps me slide into the evening. Because remembering to bring all my shit with me and actually leave school on time is a little stressful.

OK. I’m rocking pajama day. Happy to be in flannel. Already more relaxed than I would normally be.

Finally Ironed…

One thing I love about this week is that feeling that starts to rise up…the one that feels like days off from work…the anticipation of not having to write lesson plans or create curriculum from your butt because your district hasn’t given you any for the last 4+ years and the damn standards changed or even just that glorious feeling that I can stay up late, sleep in the next morning (fuck, I’ve got jury duty next Monday…even earlier than fucking school, the bastards), and make art for hours without having to worry about that whole day job thing. But also, the panicked emails of parents who want a miracle for their student’s lack of work in the form of a parent meeting NOW it must be NOW why can’t you do it NOW. Fun stuff. It won’t fix the progress report that’s coming home. So meetings and emails…lots of them.

So now I have a quiz to grade…not sure I have the brainpower for it. We have a lab today anyway, so it won’t be happening yet. It’s a lab we’ve never done before exactly like this…so we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping it goes well. It meant I had to traipse around to three stores last night trying to find two different types of chocolate chip cookie (long story), and also do the grocery shopping, and then cook dinner. Long day. I finished grades at school before I left, so as of now, they’re complete. Which is nice. I have tons of work to do at school still…they’ll make us clean our rooms so THEY can clean our rooms. Plus we need to make glaciers. Being a science teacher is a weird job sometimes.

It was late when I made it in here, but I entered a show, dealt with a bunch of personal stuff, emails, bills, figuring out that I need to ship three quilts this week alone…which means I need at least one box. And the girlchild comes home Saturday night, so her room needs about 40 quilts moved. Minor issue.

I bought the background fabric on Wednesday night last week, and then wasn’t able to get any of the ironing done. I had to stitch the background together first, make it big enough…

This was an easy ironing job…

Mostly one solid piece, not a lot of fussiness.

Calli helped.

Not at all. In no way, shape, or form.

Now they’re ready to be stitched down tonight. Hopefully that will be easy peasy…

And then I can finally quilt this bastard, like three weeks late. Sigh. Oh well. It’ll get done.

One of my students. I want you to see what I get to deal with…

Best part is his spelling of science.

I have a piece in CraftForms right now, at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA.

See if you can figure out which one it is…

It looks like an interesting show actually…lots of variety in materials and shapes and techniques…

Too bad I don’t live near Pennsylvania.

It’ll be there until February 1. Check it out!

OK, off to the mines. That’s what we’re doing today…mining. It’ll be good. Really. Then tutoring. I’m already tired. I think I’m cooking again tonight too. Ugh. OK. Work. Four more days. Translator canceled for this morning’s meeting. Could be difficult.

Portland in Review

We’re back from Portland. I haven’t slept much. I’ve been awake since 4:42 AM. I did go to bed early, so I think it was about the same amount of sleep. It was a fun trip, too short of course, but I think I might be able to handle the rest of this week. We’ll see. Perhaps the sub notes will send me over the edge. Certainly some of the student emails I got over the weekend might. I’m getting a shirt that says “It’s not fair…” and then something pithy. That my students won’t understand. Like most of my shirts.

Anyway, we picked Portland just because. We had to use a flight before the end of the year and we didn’t have much time, so we didn’t want to spend it all flying. Portland was a good distance, had some entertainment stuff we liked, had some friends we liked, and the man had never been there. Plus we might do a camping trip up there sometime. A ways out. So this was just kind of checking it out.

My ex-San Diego friend Susan (she’s not my ex-friend…she moved to Portland recently) picked us up and pretended to be our Lyft driver. We fed her lunch, which we don’t do with our Lyft drivers…

She then dropped us off at our Airbnb…with a stop at a grocery store for some supplies. We did talk about the street art and the homeless population…comparing Portland’s treatment to San Diego’s…

No spiky rocks planted there to keep them from camping out…

It was a longish day of travel…we were up early…so the man crashed out for a couple of hours. He needed it.

I graded stuff and drew and read my book. I’m good at entertaining myself.

Our Airbnb was up a huge hill, right next to Forest Park. Pros: right next to Forest Park and great views. Cons: huge hill.

We did walk down for dinner. The cold is not something we’re really used to, but we layered up. Ate dinner. Decided not to walk back. I would have. The man called a Lyft.

We got up at a reasonable hour the next morning, ate breakfast, and walked the half block to the first trail…

This was cool.

It’s been a while since we’ve hiked together…and it was good. Lots of dogs and misty rain and runners and green, so much green.

We went out Wildwood Trail for a good 4 miles or so, and then hiked down to the road coming back. It was shorter on the way back, but a healthy start to the day. Then we did a bunch of stuff that involved two Lyft drivers, wandering through Powell’s Books mindlessly, some chicken wings and cider or beer, plus seeing an old high-school friend, his wife, and their dog (dog is sweet), plus more walking, some more cider or beer and some food, plus this…

That’s from a dollhouse in the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium…

Which reminded me a lot of an alien museum in Roswell, NM, that we enjoyed…although I wanted to file a complaint about this…because that’s not needlepoint.

So there.

Drawing in bars…my specialty…although this was a bottle shop…

This was a painting outside a food co-op…

And this was the drawing I finished on Friday…

Sort of out of order. Here’s Saturday’s drawing…

finished in the bottle shop. I persuaded the man to walk back to the house! I know. He probably had a bit too much beer in him, but we made it! I think that was 7 miles total.

Sunday, we got up, ate, packed, and our lovely not-Lyft driver took us to the airport…on the plane, we saw the first sun we’d seen since we left San Diego, plus one of the volcanic majesties around Portland. We saw two, so this might be Mt. Hood…it might not.

Someone knowledgeable will tell me. Drawing 3 happened in the Las Vegas airport, surrounded by people with hangovers…

And then we were home…the man left to go get the babies, who got spayed last week…and are quite recovered. They look sleepy there, but that was after 3 hours of rampaging around the house…

They are officially ours now…paid for and our problem.

I consoled the old lady, who missed us. Maybe.

She helped me grade more stuff. It’s always good to go on a trip right before grades are due. I really only graded in airports, except for the 2-hour nap thing. No, I’m not done. I’m close though.

This morning, babies are up and crazy again…

Stitches my ass. They are not feeling it now.

OK. Gotta go to work. Teach kids. Ignore the whiny It’s Not Fair crew. Grade some shit. Give a test! Whatever. Hopefully art this week, beyond just drawing…not that I don’t like to draw. I truly enjoyed giving myself that time this weekend. Keeping that in mind for the future. Oh yeah, Portland…we’ll be back…maybe with a tent and more hiking time to spare…

Ditching

I’m not at school. Not going today. Going on a quick weekend trip. Crazy timing for that, but it’s possible there is never a good time. Currently sitting in an airport… not sure where getting sick is more likely: school or airport waiting area. They both are cesspools of germiness.

Kittens made it successfully through their spaying; we’ll see them Sunday.

I managed to find (at a store, 10 minutes before they closed) a background for the quilt…

It’s even washed, but it needs to be pieced. It didn’t happen last night. I exercised, graded the last of the hellacious essays, and packed instead. I even posted my Patreon video. All good.

While I was grading, Kitten explored the tree…

Very closely.

Well I’m hoping this is a fun trip. I packed hiking boots. Doesn’t that guarantee fun? More later…probably while I’m sitting in an airport somewhere. Back to trying to finish grades…

I Like the Rock Cycle.

I was supposed to go to book club last night, but somewhere in the middle of the union meeting, where I realized it was STILL going on, I also realized how tired I was and how many essays I still had left to read, and the responsible teacher brain took over on both and said, Self…stay home and read the things, even though they might kill your brain, because that will make the next week easier. So I did. I didn’t finish a whole class, though. At some point, somewhere after the mermaid commentary (I’m not explaining it…just know that a kid went off about how one teacher is not a mermaid in the middle of his essay about what happens to the mass of a candle when it burns.), my brain said, oh hey, fuck this, you need a break. I read essays until 10:30 PM, so I don’t feel bad. I also went to the store and got stuff for lunches for next week, at least the first part of it, and ingredients for the boychild to make the cookies I need on Monday for school. We give the classified staff food because they take care of us, although there is one staff member I would like to NOT get any of the foods, but I can’t manage that and it’s a pretty petty thing to think this time of year.

I thought it. I didn’t do it.

Anyway, 6 more essays for that class, another 14 for the last one. Oh jesus. I might not finish. I WILL FINISH. Meanwhile, another student is telling me how I should be able to grade his makeup work before progress report grades are due, because all he can think about is himself and he has no idea what I’m staring at. Hopefully I do not go off on him today about his misunderstanding of teacher work loads. I worded a slightly irritable email about maybe turning it all in the FIRST time so he wouldn’t have to beg me (this is not the first time), but he won’t get it, because 12. Selfish. World revolves around me.

I wish the world revolved around me. I’d have clean floors and…wait. That’s all I can think of right now. Hmm.

My sub plans also are written now too. Mostly. I think. I had one sub cancel and another one came in. He’s a math whiz, so tomorrow that will not be helpful at all, unless he also loves the rock cycle. I hope he loves the rock cycle. I do.

Anyway, tomorrow, at this time, I will be sitting in an airport, ditching school. This is cool. I’m not very good at ditching school, as you might know. It’s easier to never be absent. I hate writing sub plans and dealing with behavior issues afterwards. I don’t get sick much, so that helps. Really, it’s only travel at this point. As I get older, I’m sure there might be other shit that makes me miss days. Hopefully I’ll get more comfortable with it. Here’s Calli warming my butt while I write sub plans.

She’s good at that.

Here’s Simba trying to persuade me to read more essays.

I almost quit so many times. Persistence!

Here’s Calli continuing to rest while I grade.

I need to write some sort of matching or Bingo game about how to write a CER to help these kids. I don’t know where to start. I’ll figure it out over break. Maybe.

After 10:30, I came in and read all the crazy stuff I got in email today, including two acceptances to shows, which is very cool. Two pieces are going to the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California, opening January 18…Climate Goddess, which has never been seen anywhere…

Part of that is because the space is small and they needed small work. I don’t have a lot of that.

The other piece is Sweet Delicious, which was made for another show and is based on a poem I wrote…

The other show I entered is called Art Quilts and is at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, in Sebastopol, CA. You Pollute Me has been in a bunch of shows.

So that was cool news, all in one day.

Then I ironed…gave her a face and hair.

And then did the stuff in the middle and the space cat…

So now it’s all ready for a background. Except my first idea won’t work with the fabrics I picked. I went through my stash, and what I need are 4 different 26″ squares for my idea to work. But I only usually buy half yards, so that’s less than 26″. The other pieces I had were from my stash of backgrounds, so I had bigger pieces. Sigh. I think I’m going to have to go shopping. I know basically what I want. Then I can iron it all down. I can pretty much guarantee it’s not getting stitched together tonight though. So I’m behind again. Accept it. Sometimes stuff takes a long time to do, eh? I’ve done better in the last week in terms of artmaking…over 9 hours, vs the week before with only 5 and a bit, and that was with vacation time in there. I’m about 10 hours into the ironing. Almost there.

The eucalyptus trees started dropping these. They’re pretty on the mud.

Do you think my fence needs work?

Dad says it just needs a few replacement boards. Can you see how high my eyebrows are right now? I don’t think he’s seen it in this state yet. Maybe this month. Before the bushes start coming back.

OK, go to work and keep reading essays, while kids make amazing rock cycle comic pages and are totally on task and focused, and don’t flip out because I’m going to be gone tomorrow. And so is their history teacher. And in 8th period, their math teacher. It’s Friday the 13th too, so you know that’ll be a thing. Maybe Freddy Krueger will be my sub. That might motivate them. Plus I bet he likes the rock cycle.

Doesn’t Look Like Much…

Well it’s humpday. My brain is confused by days. As a teacher, I should have this down. What day is it? I write it on the board every day. You’d think I’d have a clue. This week is weird, though. I’ll be out on Friday, so I need sub plans and a video explaining shit. Plus packing and laundry and grocery shopping. No worries. Two meetings tonight. Not sure how all this will get done.

I have two more periods of grading this hellacious assignment. Grades are due Tuesday, less than a week away. I’m in Portland for three days. Grading will happen on the plane and in airports, but I don’t want it to happen once we get there. There honestly won’t be time. A stressful trip but hopefully a fun one too.

The sunset last night from the chiropractor’s office…

It was prettier in person of course.

The kittens went off to their spay surgery location last night…spay today; we’ll see them on Sunday night (well, the man will see them tomorrow night). Apparently one really didn’t want to get in the cage at the foster location. Awww. We are no longer fostering by the way…they’re ours. Because they were gone, though, Kitten came out to explore her favorite thing this time of year, the Christmas tree. Yes, it only has one ornament on it. I’ve been busy.

Really, she just wants to eat pine needles and throw them back up. It’s a strange ritual.

I graded until about 10:30 PM. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that today with the two meetings. We’ll see. Maybe I can grade some in class, but I doubt it.

Then ironing…I so want to be done with this step, but life is busy. I got everything ironed except the last head…

And the center bit…and I laid out all the 800s…but to keep ironing would have put me well past 1 AM, so I stopped at midnight. Ish. Sleep is a thing I need. So I have a head to do, the center bit, and the space cat, about 72 pieces. Then I need to figure out the background, which is a bigger deal. Because I have no idea what I’m going to do about that. Maybe give up and go shopping on Thursday after work. I wanted to piece this background and this was going to be the perfect piece for that, and it might still be, but I haven’t had the time to see if I can pull it off. Too much time being responsible and shit.

Oh yeah, she’s headless…

Here’s some loose bits that will hang out around the women…

A spaceship and a monarch butterfly. You know, like you do.

Look! That’s all that’s left…

Doesn’t look like much because it’s not. I might not go to book club tonight. I might do this instead (shhh). Or I might get out of the first meeting too late anyway to traipse all the way across town.

It’ll all get done eventually. Even decorating the tree. Cleaning the girlchild’s room (she’s coming home in 10 days, 15 hours, and 18 minutes. Give or take. Winter Break. It’s soon too. All good. Really. OK. Off to NeedyTown. We play a game today. It’ll be OK.

Which Way Is Up…

When I’m ironing a quilt together late at night, the little tiny voice that remembers how tired I will be the next day is very quiet. It’s overwhelmed by the art brain, which is stomping around and excited about what happens next and why can’t we just finish it now and WTF is up with your needing a day job what happened to us being starving artists. Yeah. So sometimes I don’t hear the little voice until it’s late and sometimes I don’t hear it until it’s REALLY late. Luckily last night was just late. And I did see the clock. And I realized I had a parent meeting this morning. And I just didn’t care. Last night. This morning, I care a little bit more, although I’m functional. Art brain is muttering about how we could have FINISHED the ironing last night (always true. Not always smart.). It’s OK. We’ll finish tonight. We’re close, it’s true, but not close enough.

Speaking of close, while I was grading, somehow I ended up with this…

She made it hard to type, but how can you resist? Sweet (bitey asshole) baby. No really. She is a bitey asshole. Her sister will confirm. “I want to clean your ear. And then I want to bite it.” Eventually Nova left. No bites.

But first, a requisite family photo…

Nova definitely upped the weight gain last week. They’re getting spayed tomorrow. Hoping they’re both OK. We won’t see them again until Sunday night. I think we temporarily named them Flower or Sweetness (on the left) and Butthead (on the right) last night. Significantly different personalities.

I was trying to grade through all that. All that was after spending about an hour and a half standing in pharmacies, arguing with my medication insurance company about their fucked-up stupidity…always fun. Eventually solved. Someone lost or stole my meds in Compton, so they never showed up…getting short-term replacements is a Pain in the ASS. It doesn’t matter that your doctor approved it. Your insurance company needs five levels of approval and at least one Giant Fuckup on their part before they’ll OVERRIDE. I apologize to everyone in CVS last night who heard me go off on the LAST person I talked to. Love insurance. Really. Mostly. Sigh.

I gave up on grading after 5 essays. Between the residual holiday party annoyance, the pharmacy irritation, and kitten interactions, I couldn’t concentrate any more. Which sucks, because ideally they’re all done before I leave, and I’m less than halfway there. Ugh.

I ironed. It was 10 PM. It was fair.

Yeah, that’s upside down. See previous comments about which way is up. Because I don’t know. Figure 3 in progress, new iron…

It’s large. Probably more likely to hit the floor.

I need an iron that knows how (and when) to levitate.

Figure 3 is done…now comes the fun part of trying to make Figure 4 fit everything together.

Hard to do…I got a start on her, but she’s missing some chunks. I did make it work though.

No holes! My original background choices aren’t going to work, I think. Too much dark in the figures to go on a relatively dark background. I’ll have to think about it. And go through the stash, because I’m probably piecing it. I don’t have time to go buy anything new, so it’ll have to be pieced.

Anyway, that’s after today’s day at work, which includes a lab and managing the sweet dipwads who haven’t finished all their work. Plus tutoring. Where the kids who don’t need it show up and the kids whose parents are forcing them to go show up and say they don’t want to work on science because history is easier. Then when I walk away, they go back to whatever game they were playing that I can’t catch them at. Yup. It’s December and progress reports are coming.

I Killed an Iron…

Happy Monday! I know. It’s Monday. I’m trying a positive attitude. I actually did OK this weekend and am feeling OK about going into this week. Not awesome, but OK. As always, I’m tired. I’m behind in grading. And the floors are dirty. What’s new? I know, right? It’s not raining. That’s a plus. Today’s classwork is a known thing. Also a plus. The lab is tomorrow. That will be harder, but it’s a pretty easy lab. I’m only working 4 days this week…at school…because I’m ditching school for a day to go to Portland. Why Portland? No good reason. We had a free flight that needed to be used before the end of the year, so we picked somewhere relatively close. Honestly, if we sit in the Airbnb for the whole time, it will be OK.

So I did a lot of artmaking this weekend…I think that’s why I’m feeling OK about it being Monday. This was Saturday afternoon…

It was a delightful afternoon. I gave myself about two and a half hours to iron.

It’s a great form of meditation…

Kitten break. They finally got big enough to be spayed…it’ll be this week, mostly while we’re gone. Poor babies.

These are the 200s, all laid out for ironing.

This thing is going together pretty easily. Here’s the start of Figure number 2…

Saturday night, we had the man’s work party, on top of a downtown building again.

It was OK. Snacking food is hard for a diabetic. There was gambling AND a murder mystery AND a masquerade. Seemed like a lot. The man won pizza socks. Lots of them.

Sunday was slow-moving, like my dad in his truck, carrying a lime tree from a friend’s house that is about to be sold to my house where it will live in the ground quite happily. Hopefully.

I grocery shopped, did laundry, and even graded. But I ironed for another 2 hours. I actually killed my iron last night…

I’ve dropped it multiple times, super-glued the base back together twice, but this was The Death of It. Seriously, pieces went flying. Everywhere. It’s gone.

Luckily, I keep a spare.

Kitten interaction in between things…

That’s my leg, Luna.

Kitten (the real Kitten) likes to hang out while I iron.

Sometimes right in front of the screen. There’s Figure 2, getting ironed…

Then she has eyeballs and she’s right side up.

The hardest part of this quilt might be deciding which way is up. This will be the third quilt this year where I’ve had that issue.

Starting on Figure 3. That’s where I had to go to bed.

I won’t be done tonight, but I’ll be close. Stitchdown by the end of the week. Then hopefully quilting next week.

Here’s my top nine on Instagram for 2019. Interesting…two aren’t quilts and two are old quilts. But that’s OK.

And one has no face. That’s just weird.

OK, today is the festive (not) forced holiday party at work for 2 hours. Shoot me now. Then I can come home and iron to my heart’s content. Well, I have a grading goal, but THEN I can iron.

Earned It…

I guess today’s post should be been titled ‘We Survived’, since we managed to get through the zoo field trip yet another year. I do actually like this field trip…I have just a small group of kids and it’s mostly not stressful…once you’re actually on the bus. We aren’t actually there a long time, so we always miss some of the animals…

Somehow we always catch the flamingos. Oh yeah, because they’re by the entrance. Then I take a survey of the group as to what they want to see… and then we head that direction…

I had mostly girls this year with a couple of boys I had to add on at the end. They were pretty good, even the two guys…

The one who whines all day in my class did not do so on the field trip.

I don’t know if that’s because he was in a smaller group or because all those girls intimidated him.

Either way, I don’t care. He behaved. It went well.

When we got back, there was the requisite amount of running around and returning nurse stuff, cafeteria stuff, dress-coding a kid (duh on the short shorts sweetheart), finally eating lunch, then ‘teaching’ my 8th period (here’s a video. eat the foods. be quiet. don’t bug me.) as I cleaned the classroom, and then did duty.

I got home and ingested caffeine. It started to rain. Then I headed out to an artist talk. I was pretty tired.

Which is why it looks like I’m praying to my phone in the photo…came home and ate the ordered pizza, graded an assignment with this guy…

And straight up? Went to bed. Three hours early. So tired.

This morning was a not-relaxing (but good) pilates class, some food, some reading (book club meets Wednesday and I haven’t finished the book…luckily, it’s short). I showered, petted this little (not so little) beast…

And these two…

Who have now flipped their growth spurts…Nova (on the left) gained more than Luna this week. She’s still smaller, but not as much.

I have about 4 hours now of an afternoon, rain falling, gloomy skies. I think I’m going to iron for a while. I should grade some essays too, but I don’t feel like it. I’ve earned some art time.